This is What the Las Vegas Hyperloop Test Track Will Look Like

Hyperloop Technologies, one of the companies vying to build Elon Musk’s (other) vision of future transportation, is planning on building a test track in North Las Vegas. Here’s what the company thinks it will look like.

The track will be open to the air rather than in a tube, a big departure from the plans for a full-on Hyperloop, which would run in a tube mostly devoid of air. The purpose of the open-air test track is mostly to trial the systems used to accelerate the pod up to hundreds of miles an hour; in this case, it will be shooting a ‘test vehicle’ up to 300mph, in just half a mile of track, taking a grand total of two seconds. Presumably, there is a large pile of mattresses at the other end.

It’s a long way from being the future of mass transport, but still: from white paper to high-speed electromagnetic catapult in two years is pretty darn good. [YouTube]